Rheological and Baking Characteristics of a Diverse Set of Advanced Winter x Spring Lines of Wheat

Therheological and baking characteristics of 17 Winter x Spring cross lines along with five existing BW lines (constituting the WS group) and two checks PBW 343 and PBW 550 grown during 2007–08 and 2008–09 were analyzed. The rheological characteristics as evaluated on the farinograph did not show any significant effect of either of the entries of or the environment over two years. BW 5503, BW 9134, BW 9135, BW 9158 were observed to be rheologically superior entries. Among baking characteristics bread quality characteristics showed a significant effect of both the genetic and environmental factors. But water absorption, loaf volume and bread quality scores were low. Only BW 9157 and BW 9158 were the entries requiring water in excess of 60 percent during 2007–08 for producing dough of right consistency for baking. Majority of the entries yielded almost non-sticky dough. Cookie quality as adjudged through the spread factor was not upto the mark and only BW 9141 produced biscuits with a spread factor of 8.5 during 2008–09. A significant effect was observed due to environment on the chapatti quality score as well as fresh and stored moisture content. On the whole BW 9134 and BW 9136 produced consistently good chapatties.